Episode 3: Bound and Determined

This week I show off my FO, Elphaba, talk about the Evenstar beads, and my plans for future knitting. I also go into airport spinning (see above), and the epic story of my quest for a spindle, and lots of random thoughts on spinning.

Sorry about missing last week. Recording just wasn't in the cards.

Take care guys,

Molly : )

Episode 2: Lots of Work, a Little Bit of Progress

This week I talk about the spinning class I am taking, continuing to spin my GnomeSpun Shetland top (I totally forgot to name drop), my Elphaba Pullover, and the Evenstar Shawl.

I took the time to count, and a.) I have 47 repeats done, b.) I have 199 beads left and c.) I ordered 10 more grams because I need 251 to finish (33 beads a gram).

I plan on starting Ashton Windows as my next sock project, by the awesome Karen from Sock Knitters. And I talk a little about the physics of spindles.

That's all for now, take care guys!

Molly  : )

WIP Wednesday: A Mean Right Hook

A 1 mm crochet hook finally arrived in the mail today! Hurrah for the return of mail! Hurrah for the efficient adding of size 8 beads! Boo bills! Thank you Joni!

I got to do half a repeat with the crochet hook. It works great, and I don't need to worry about bending it like both versions of my copper wire. Version one was similar to a crochet hook. Version two was more like beading wire.

I finally got to check off another 5% on my progress bar. Only 5% of the stitches remain, 3 bags of beads, and a boatload Wollmeise lace. For the first time in a long time you can see the shawl in its full form. I plan to block the living daylights out of it. I am excited because I have my first Friday off, so there will be more time to work on this. I plan on renting a movie and going to town on this.

Speaking of movies, I went to see Star Trek this weekend. Partly because movies like that are meant to be seen in a theater, and partly because I needed some way to keep myself entertained while knitting several inches of stockinette in the round.

I had an obvious color change with the balls, so I have to rip back everything I did in the movie. Rats! you can see a little bit in the photo where I did two rounds alternating skeins. There was no way I was going to rip back past the horizontal bust darts.

The fit this time around is great. I am so happy it worked. I have another half an inch of boring knitting before I get to the waist decreases. As you can tell,  I am fond of this blue. I didn't realize my shower curtain matched.

So I mentioned in my last podcast that I asked about a spinning class at one of the LYS's in town. I went on the wait list. That very night I jumped from third on the waitlist, to sitting in the first class the next afternoon. The first class was mostly review for me. I have been spinning on a spindle since December, so on the spindle and drafting portion I blew the other people out of the water. Next Sunday we start wheel spinning, and I will get to be a complete n00b again : ) I wish I had brought some of my first yarn to show them that I started at that same place, and I did not have someone there to help troubleshoot when things went pear shaped.

I actually found the coopworth a bit harder to handle than the shetland, but that might also be because I was spinning bottom whorl, with a heavier spindle. It is really slick and soft. I haven't broken into the romney yet.

The shetland is really coming along. I am spinning every day for at least 15 minutes, and oftentimes an hour. I finished the first third Monday night, and I wound it off on a leg on my niddy noddy.

I started the next third on Tuesday night. I got a decent chunk done.

I took the time to measure the wraps per inch. It was coming in at 31!!!!!! After checking the handy chart that means my singles are a light fingering, so I will probably have sport weight yarn. The plan is to have a 3 ply, and it will barber pole like crazy. I learned how to check my singles to make a 3 ply, so I am making it pretty twisted to give my singles the appropriate energy.

I am excited because it is looking like dutch delft tiles. I love when the blue and white blend in my single.

Please check out the other WIP Wednesday bloggers!

I think that is all for now, take care guys!

Molly : )

Episode 1: A Spinning Frenzy

Here is my video for this week (so much faster than writing a post about it all) Please excuse the awful look on my face, that was the best of the 3 thumbnails YouTube picked..

This week I show off my progress on Elphaba Pullover, Evenstar Shawl, and my Gnomespun Fibers Top.

The only stashquisitions this week was a tube of beads for my next shawl, Summer Blooms.

I talk also about furniture, wire insulation, a wall of Jamieson, Carne Avodava and other random things.

Take care guys,

Molly : )

Episode 0: A Fiber Fiesta!

A Fiber Fiesta!



Thanks for watching, I will put up show notes later this week.

Take care guys

Molly : )

A larger baby hat, and Kai-Mei

On the drive down to New Mexico there was plenty of time to knit.

I managed to finish the baby hat, I am to 37 1/2 repeats of Evenstar border (2/3's) and I got a good start on the cuff on Kai-Mei.

So, the baby hat is done.
 

 I have enough to make a third small one if I felt like it. Or a 3rd larger one if I added another color. Not sure. I really am digging the stripey with the varigated

After a week of training, and knitting while being trained, Kai-Mei is done too.
 

So they are done done done.

So now that I am finished with these projects only Evenstar and now Elphaba are on the needles. I am just waiting for a tiny crochet hook to arrive so I can finish Evenstar once and for all.

In the future plans department I am participating in The Knit Girllls Stash Dash this year. This time the total needed is just 4k instead of 5k.It seems like it might be possible given that I have a big WIP that will be finished soon. Yes Evenstar, I am looking at you, in a pile, on the ground.

I think that is all for now, take care guys,

Molly : )

Feeling a Little Wicked: WIP Wednesday

I joined the clog band wagon. Oddly, as one who took her first steps in wooden shoes, I find it amusing that I have returned to the clog look. When I was at the store I commented on the delft tiles they had on the counter, and the salesperson said it was a Dutch thing. I then put two and two together. I was just sick and tired of wearing uncomfortable dress shoes. Who decided that women's shoes should all kill my arches? These guys are fantastic, and show off my socks. Double win!

Land of Enchantment

Several very wonderful things occurred.

1.) The road trip across part of the country was a success. The poor Probe was not overloaded, we could see out of the back.

Nothing broke on the road. The car will probably keep rolling.Somewhere in Texas is an abandoned plastic baggie of beads with my notched piece of copper wire.


2.) We made it to the Land of Enchantment, and green chile.

3.) Unpacking was a snap, because the poor Probe is a 2 door car.



4.) Coffee and Internet were restored. The coffee was easy, getting my computer to accept the gift of internet was much more challenging. It is 8 years old, and well, it turns out I haven't tried to use the network cable in at least 4. In a surprise move it broke sometime between now and then with no loss of performance.

I am also liking my little knitting nook. I normally keep the shades open and just watch people walk by.

Watch this space tomorrow. I have some FO's to share, and I didn't make it for WIP Wednesday.

That's all for now, take care guys

Molly : )

A Chill Week: WIP Wednesday

Life is getting pretty exciting here in the land of the deepbluerenegade. However, after the flurry of activity last week, this one was very very chill in comparison.

I have been preparing to move across the country in a week. I am leaving for 7 months to go work in my dream job!

Because of these big exciting things, blogging might be a little interrupted. I probably will be missing internet at my apartment.

It is looking pretty sketchy on fitting all of my crap into the car. I can ship 150 pounds of stuff, though I might need to rearrange some boxes so I am carrying only the fragile things.

But hey, this is a creative endeavors blog. I have been busy knitting when I can, and now that I am no longer under the interesting constraints of blog week, I can talk about them like normal.

I have my stash in exile packed, and we will see how good I am at anticipating how much I can knit in 7 months. I have 2 sweater quantities, stuff for the 3 shawls I talked about, and a random smattering of sock yarn. I am going to bring half of my blocking mats, the blocking wires, niddy-noddy and hopefully the swift and ballwinder. If I had been thinking I would have balled up the obvious stuff. I grabbed a few books, which the titles escape me now. Well, I know poems of color is in the box, even though I decided not to bring the bohus yarn. I know think outside the socks got thrown in, which makes sense since I want to knit hexagons again for the DSLO.

On the finished object front:


I started and finished a cowl made of my first handspun. I have knit this cowl three times. The first time with some purple bulky held doubled. That did not work. The colors were too close in value. Then I knit it with charcoal super bulky, but I cast on too many stitches and it was the awkward, too big to fit and too small to be huge.


It is on the border between crazy and cool. I actually like how the singles look more than the plied yarn. Mostly I am glad I found a way to use the yarn. I will have to put my thinking cap on for the other skein of handspun.

I like this photo because it shows the contrast between my first handspun and my third handspun. I have learned so much in the past few months.

The next thing is a set of baby hats for one of my friends. I finished the newborn size with no problems. I actually knit the first one because I was frustrated with the socks. I modified the pattern so I could use 2 yarns, and then I am doing the linen stitch pattern. Well, so this is on the border between FO and WIP.

Kai-Mei is in knitting limbo for a spell. Something went pear shaped when I went to gather the dropped stitches and knit them all together. This is after I ripped out the entire foot when I realized I placed the instep pattern in the wrong location. This is not the first time I have ripped back to the picked up stitches on the gusset.

I really want the finished product to be awesome. And it is my own fault for ignoring the directions.

There are several fun facts. 1.) The lace pattern is scalable. You can make it larger by adding initial stitches. So you add two stitches for every row you add. I keep the numbers even I added 4 stitches to the width.

I am happy with sock number 1, but the knitting of Kai-Mei was not as fun as I thought it would be, if that makes any sense.


I am also trucking away on Evenstar. I have it by my computer, ready for whenever I have a little spare time to pick away at it. We had some friends from undergrad visit this weekend, so I finally made it past the halfway point on the border.

It was very happy to be able to move the progress bar that extra five percent. For some unknown reason my markers for the middle were nowhere near the middle of the border. This makes me feel a little better. I am not even sure of the count. I was at 27 left the last I checked and it is very happy because it has become a count down not a count.

I also had an interesting time deconstructing how the purl stitch works. Did you know that when I knit or purl I always wrap the yarn counterclockwise? My friend was having trouble because he was trying to approach the purl like the knit. So in a knit you stick your needle in the front inside of the stitch going to the back outside. In purls you stick your needle in the back outside and go toward the front inside. Hopefully it works : ) It was really interesting to see what assumptions I make when I knit, and to break it all down and see what it is I actually do. I have been on autopilot in knitting for a long time.

I think that is all for now, please go visit the other WIP Wednesday folks here.

Take care guys

Molly : )

Joy and Smiles Episode 21: Our Freak Flag Geometries

You'll have to tune in to figure out the title, haha!

That's all for now, take care guys!

Molly : )